Is Office Depot Still in Business? Business Cards, UV Printers & More—8 Office Buying Questions, Answered

I manage purchasing for a 50-person company—roughly $25,000 annually across eight vendors. I report to both operations and finance, which means I think about office buying from a budget perspective and a usability perspective. Here are the Office Depot business questions I get asked most, with answers from years of actually ordering from them.

Is Office Depot Still in Business?

Yes. I get this one constantly, probably because people drive past a closed storefront and assume the whole company went under. Office Depot is still very much operating. It's part of The ODP Corporation, which also owns OfficeMax—they merged back in 2013. Since then, the corporate focus has shifted heavily toward B2B services and e-commerce. That means fewer physical stores, but the business side is where they've been investing most.

For context: I've been ordering from Office Depot since 2020. The process has changed a lot in that time. It went from "call the store and hope someone picks up" to a proper business portal with purchase history, approval workflows, and account management. The retail stores still carry the Office Depot brand, but the parent company has expanded well beyond retail into supply chain services and B2B technology.

What Does Office Depot Offer for Business Customers?

This is where Office Depot is actually strong now. Their B2B offering includes:

• Business credit accounts with net payment terms. This matters more than people realize. I've had vendors who couldn't produce proper invoices, and it cost us $2,400 in rejected expenses early on.
• Membership perks through the Rewards program, with a percentage back on qualifying purchases. It adds up on larger orders—we get maybe $200–$400 back annually.
• Print services for business cards, banners, signage, and marketing materials.
• Account management—even at our size, I have a contact person who actually responds to emails.

Office Depot markets their business solutions aggressively, and per FTC advertising guidelines (ftc.gov), claims should be truthful and substantiated. From my experience, the convenience is real—the "site-wide savings" messaging is more marketing. You have to watch for actual deals.

Can I Order Business Cards from Office Depot?

Yes. This is one of the services I use regularly. You can order business cards online through the Office Depot print section, or in person at a store Print Center. Standard turnaround is typically 2–3 business days, not including shipping.

The cost varies a lot depending on paper stock, finish, and quantity. Basic cards start in the $15–$20 range for 250, but premium options climb quickly. Don't overpay for a fancy finish if the cards are going to sit in a drawer. Oh, and about textured cardstock: it looks great in the box, but it scuffs up in wallets just like the cheap ones.

According to USPS pricing effective January 2025: First-Class Mail letter (1 oz) is $0.73. First-Class Mail large envelope (1 oz) is $1.50. Source: usps.com/stamps

One thing to watch: if you're mailing business cards or brochures, USPS has dimension rules that catch people off guard. Per USPS Business Mail 101, a standard letter must be between 3.5" x 5" and 6.125" x 11.5", with thickness under 0.25". I found this out when I ordered 500 thick, textured cards for a manager—they looked great, but every piece needed extra postage. That's a hidden cost I still remember.

Do I Need a UV Printer for Business Signage?

I got asked this by a colleague who wanted to produce custom signs in-house. My answer: probably not, and here's the math.

UV printers use ultraviolet light to cure ink instantly, which allows printing on materials like acrylic, wood, glass, and metal. That's genuinely impressive—or rather, it's impressive for the right use case. For a business that isn't a print shop, the utilization isn't there. Entry-level UV printers run $5,000 to $15,000 new. Plus ink, maintenance, and someone's time to learn the machine.

For our 50-person company, we spend roughly $2,000 a year on signage. A $15,000 UV printer would take over seven years to break even, and that's ignoring the labor. I'm not a print equipment specialist, so I can't speak to specific models or print quality. What I can tell you from a procurement perspective is that equipment purchases only make sense when usage justifies them.

How Do I Update a Printer Driver?

The honest answer is that it depends on the printer, but the steps are pretty standard. This is one of the most frequent tech requests I get from coworkers.

1. Go to the manufacturer's website first. HP, Brother, Epson, and Canon all have support sections where you enter your model and download the correct driver for your operating system.
2. Try Windows Update or macOS software update. This catches drivers for most mainstream printers.
3. Use Device Manager on Windows: right-click the printer, select "Update driver," and choose "Search automatically."

One mistake I made early on: I downloaded a "generic driver" from a third-party site because the manufacturer's page wasn't loading. It turned out to be adware, and I spent an afternoon cleaning it off a coworker's machine. Stick to official sources.

If you're managing more than a couple of printers, set a reminder to check for driver updates quarterly. Outdated drivers cause weird issues—print jobs stuck in queue, poor output quality, and the occasional "printer not responding" error that makes people want to throw things.

What's a Cap Rate Calculator and Why Would I Need One?

This one catches people off guard, but it came up when we were evaluating a second location—lease versus buying a small office building.

A capitalization rate—cap rate for short—measures a property's return on investment. The formula is simple: net operating income divided by property value. If a building costs $500,000 and generates $50,000 in annual net income, that's a 10% cap rate. Investors use it to compare properties. For a business, it helps answer a bigger question: is buying this property a better use of money than leasing?

I'm not a real estate expert, so I can't speak to the nuances of property valuation or financing. What I can tell you from a procurement perspective is that running the math made our decision easier. We stuck with leasing—and the cap rate calculation showed us why. Our capital was better deployed in operations than in a building.

If you're evaluating real estate for your business, any online cap rate calculator can give you a quick estimate. Just be careful with the inputs. If you put in an inflated income number, the cap rate is meaningless. Garbage in, garbage out.

Does Office Depot Take Small Orders Seriously?

This matters more than people think. When I was starting out in 2020, the vendors who took my $200 orders seriously are the ones I still use for $20,000 orders. Small doesn't mean unimportant—it means potential.

Office Depot has handled this well in my experience. I've never felt like a $50 toner order was a nuisance to them. That's not true everywhere. Some suppliers have minimum order requirements, and I understand why—it makes sense for their business model. But it means I can't test them with a small order first, which makes me less likely to use them later when our orders grow.

Small doesn't mean unimportant—it means potential.

I'm not saying Office Depot is perfect. Their catalog prices aren't always the lowest, and you have to watch for promotions to get the best deals. But they treat small business accounts like real customers. That's worth a lot when you're a growing company.

Why Should I Care About Vendor Invoicing and Written Confirmation?

Because I learned both lessons the hard way.

In my first year handling procurement, I found a great price on bulk printer paper from a new vendor—$180 cheaper than our regular supplier. I placed the order. The shipment arrived on time. Then the invoice came as a handwritten receipt with no proper tax breakdown. Accounting rejected the expense report, and I ended up covering $180 from the department budget to avoid further awkwardness. Now I verify a vendor's invoicing capability before placing any order.

The second lesson involved a verbal agreement with a long-time furniture vendor. "Don't worry, we'll get it there," they said. We'd worked together for years, and I thought, what are the odds they miss a delivery date? Well, the odds caught up with me. The order arrived two weeks late, my VP was not happy, and I looked like I didn't know what I was doing. Now I ask for written confirmation on every deadline. It's not about distrust—it's about making sure both sides remember the same version of the promise.

Office Depot, to their credit, sends automatic order confirmations and tracking updates. I should add that this is one of the things I check when onboarding any new vendor. It seems basic, but you'd be surprised how many suppliers skip it.